Cian Ferriter

Ferriter attended secondary school at St Benildus College in Kilmacud until 1986.[1] He studied at University College Dublin, graduating with a BCL degree in 1993 and an arbitration diploma in 2000.[2] He was the auditor of the University College Dublin Law Society between 1991 and 1992 and was the individual winner of the Irish Times Debate in 1992.[3][4]

His brother is the professor of history Diarmaid Ferriter.[5]

He was the moderator of the second series of the television programme The Blackbird And The Bell on RTÉ One.[6][7]

He became a member of the Irish bar in 1998 and a senior counsel in 2011.[8] He has been involved in cases involving injunctions, insolvency law, tax law, company law, procurement law and intellectual property law.[9][10][11][12][13][14] Among parties he represented were the estate of James Joyce, the Criminal Assets Bureau, Brian Curtin, Dublin Airport Authority, Anglo Irish Bank, the National Asset Management Agency and Google.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

He has acted for financial institutions in debt enforcement cases, including the Bank of Ireland in enforcement actions against Brian O'Donnell and Everyday Finance against Ivor Callely.[22][23] He was counsel for John Gilligan in a 2003 appeal to a conviction for possession of drugs for supply and for Thomas Murphy in 2007 in a challenge against the Criminal Asset Bureau.[24][25] He was appointed to represent the Garda Commissioner at the Barr Tribunal and represented the Mahon Tribunal in a High Court action taken by Bertie Ahern.[26][27] He was counsel for Tomasz Zalewski in the Supreme Court of Ireland who successfully challenged the constitutionality of aspects of the Workplace Relations Commission.[28]

Ferriter frequently appeared in defamation cases, acting for RTÉ in actions taken by the politicians Beverley Flynn and Joe Costello, for Independent News & Media against Monica Leech and for The Irish Times against Maurice McCabe.[29][30][31][32]

The Central Bank of Ireland appointed him chairperson of the Irish Takeover Panel in June 2018.[33] In 2019, he became a board member of the Irish Traditional Music Archive and Poetry Ireland.[34][35]

Ferriter was nominated to the High Court in September 2021.[36] He was appointed on 5 October 2021.[37]

He has presided over cases involving refugee law, judicial review, personal insolvency, medical negligence and personal injuries.[38][39][40][41][42]

He lives in Dublin and writes poetry. He was the winner of the 2019 Westival International Poetry Competition and runner up of the 2020 Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition.[43]